Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and friends
A/N: Short one-shot about Neville and Ginny's romance, told by Neville's wife, Mandy Brockelhurst
"Ginny," Neville said as he opened the door to the Room of Requirement, "You don't have to do this."
Ginny walked in and sat down on the couch. Her blue eyes searched the room as her red hair fell into them, "Yes, Neville, I do."
"But I don't want you to," Neville stated, as if that fact would make Ginny change her mind.
"Neville," Ginny replied, stopping her search of the room, "I warned you when we got together that I was not your property and that I will do as I please."
"I know Gin," Neville defended himself, "It's just....I don't want you to get hurt."
Ginny placed her lips softly on Neville's. It was a chaste kiss, but at this point in their relationship, Neville just wanted to hold her, kisses meant nothing. "I won't get hurt," she promised.
Those were the last words she ever said to him. Ginevra Weasley died that night. The story behind her death is too painstakingly sad to discuss here, but it was so very painful for the one man who loved her, that he vowed never to love again.
Neville Longbottom spent two years in denial. He swore that his Ginny would come back for him. He swore he would never fall in love. And then he met me. My name is Amaranda, or Mandy, Brocklehurst, and this is my story.
When I was eleven, I started my schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I was sorted into the Wise house of Ravenclaw, and there was no place I would have rather been. My parents always fought, and I would always believe that I was their reason for not getting a divorce. Without me, they would have been seperated long ago.
For four years I lived peacefully Hogwarts, You-Know-Who, Voldemort rather, was long gone, or so we all thought. Then, at the end of my fourth year, Harry Potter comes out of the Triwizard Maze clutching the dead body of Cedric Diggory. It was heartbreaking, mindboggleing, and timestopping, but it was all true. Voldemort was back, and he was back with a vengence.
Then the war broke out, for three years we fought against the darkness. Then, finally, at the end of my seventh year, the War was over, we were victoriuos. Everything was right in the world.
But there was so many deaths. My parents were gone, and though I hate to admit it I grieved for them. Dumbledore was gone, and I swear everyone cried for him. And Neville Longbottom, a man I had never given a second thought, was grieving for the only woman that had ever loved him as a woman loves a man. Neville Longbottom had lost his one true love, Ginevra Weasley.
Neville had proven himself to me, he had fought with Harry and his friends, and he was one of the people to help bring down Voldemort. I fell for him, and I fell hard. So he wasn't the most handsomest man in the Universe, he was kind and gentle. And when I asked him out, he said yes. And even though he missed his Ginny, he was the best boyfriend I could've asked for.
When he proposed, I was in shock. Neville had sworn he would never love again, and here he was proposing to me. I said yes, and now we have been happily married for seventeen years and we have two beuatiful teenagers. One is just like me, and the other is just like...Ginny. Yes, somehow Ginny has come back to Neville, and though he tries not to, he favors our Autumn as if she were his Ginny.
But, alas, she is not. And I listen to his tears in the earliest hours of the morning, when he thinks I can not hear him. I hear the way he calls her name, longing for her to return.
I will not lie, it is painful. I hate being second best to a dead person, but I love him. And I know that he loves me, he just loves me a little less, and a little differently than he loved Ginny.
Neville Longbottom lost his one true love that night, so many, many years ago. He lost the only woman who believed in him without him having to prove himself to her. And I know that I am unable to take her place.
And I swear, no matter how badly his tears afect me, no matter how much being second best burns, "I won't get hurt."